Marini (or Marino), Giambattista (1569–1625)

Italian poet. He aimed to surprise by the use of startling metaphors, hyperboles, antitheses, and other literary devices. His ornate and self-conscious style, termed ‘Marinism’, influenced early 17th-century poetry in Italy, France, and England. His best-known work, Adone (1623), for the first time took love instead of war as the theme of a major epic.

Marini was born in Naples. Intended for the law, he left his profession and led a wandering, dissolute life, often in debt. Imprisoned for immorality, his release was secured through admirers of his poetry. In 1615 he left Italy for Paris, where he lived under the patronage of Marie de' Medici. He returned to Italy in 1623.